


The First Time's The Charm (Except That It Isn't)

by fleshlycherry



Category: Hellboy (movie-verse)
Genre: F/M, Yuletide 2008
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-03
Updated: 2011-05-03
Packaged: 2017-10-18 22:13:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/193874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleshlycherry/pseuds/fleshlycherry
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time was awkward. And while first times are expected to be awkward, this one was also uncomfortable, embarrassing, frustrating, and entirely too one-sided.</p><p>It gets better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The First Time's The Charm (Except That It Isn't)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [prairiestar](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=prairiestar).



> Set between the first and second films.

The first time was awkward. And while first times are expected to be awkward, this one was also uncomfortable, embarrassing, frustrating, and entirely too one-sided.

As Hellboy carried Liz out of the tunnels, strands of her hair catching on his stone hand, she had winced when some pulled out from her scalp, and he'd know then, just known deep in his gut that he could not be with her. He was too big, too rough, too red. He might be a demon with a heart of gold, but in the mirror all he saw was the demon. After she had recovered properly, it was easy to keep her at a bit of a distance. It was all so new, so fresh, and they both had their reasons to take it slow.

For her part, Liz was shy. Her shyness fed from her relative inexperience; in the transformation of her feelings for him to something deeper, more intimate, that she did not quite know how to deal with.

Days and days passed, their slow circling winding them tighter and tighter. Liz wanted more than the chaste kisses Hellboy offered her when they found time alone, and when she thought of exactly what more entailed her body would clench warmly. Her kisses became more passionate, her touches began to linger, and the look in her eyes asked him for more.

Hellboy ached with want for more of her too. All day and in every way he wanted her in his life, but he was so very afraid. He would destroy the world for her in a heartbeat, but in that same sliver of time he could shatter her in his hands. He feared his strength and size; feared what he could do to her unknowingly. He was afraid of her love that tried to tell him that that his face, his body didn't matter.

And so, when after an evening of cartoons and heavy, wet kisses Liz tried to draw him down on top of her, he had grasped her around the waist and pulled her across his lap. The look on her face was not the playful pout he had been hoping to see, Liz looked genuinely disappointed, genuinely upset.

"Red-" She began, but he barely let her finish the word before his tail was pressing her towards him, his mouth reaching to cut off her words.

"Shhhh," he mumbled against her lips, but she pulled back and quirked an eyebrow at him. "Not now, Liz." He whispered softly, "You're just so," a small needy sound escaped her as his hand, his flesh hand, palmed her breast, gently pulling on her nipple, "Beautiful."

She stood to unbutton her pants, hastily pushing them to the floor before returning to him. She shivered, the air was cool, but through rough denim of his jeans against her thighs and the soft cotton of his shirt under her hands Liz could feel the heat of Hellboy's body. She slipped one hand under his shirt, trailing her fingers up his stomach, but he wrapped his tail around her wrist and gently tugged it away before she could lift the fabric further, the look on his face telling her that this was not the time to argue. And so as he carefully pulled her shirt over her head, she thought, this time, this first time, to let it go. To allow him what he needed to feel; that he was keeping her safe by keeping himself from her. So this time, this first time, she rolled her hips against his but in the end, let him please her with fingers and tongue and she ignored his clenched stone hand.

When she tried to talk to him about that night, tried to tell him that he did not have to hold back from her, they fought.

"I can't change THIS!" He bellowed, jerking his heavy, carved hand in a gesture towards his body, his tail lashing in agitation. He spun to the coffee table and brought his fist down on it, smashing it to kindling with a single motion.

Her hands ignited, he jerked back as she thrust a single finger towards him and her fury dissipated with that little movement, the blue flames extinguishing as quickly as they had sparked to life.

She turned her palms up, "And I can't change this, Red. But you still love me."

He shook his head, "You don't understand, Liz. You can't hurt me." She dropped her hands, moving towards him, but before she could touch him he pulled away. "This is what I am." He mumbled, shoving a cigar into his mouth. He turned his back to her and pointed at the wreckage of the table as he walked away "And that's what I could do to you without even knowing."

Later, Hellboy stumbled into the library, nursing a two-four, and slid to the floor in front of Abraham's tank.

Abe watched in silence as Hellboy contemplated the aluminum can in his hand for a long moment before slowly crushing it. "If I may say..."

Hellboy huffed, "What did I do to deserve a lecture this time, Abe?"

Abraham blinked, and then blinked again, and then seemed, lack of lungs not withstanding, to exhale. "We are friends, Red. I understand where you're coming from, believe me I do, it isn't easy to be different for any of us."

Hellboy sighed, "I just don't know what I'd do, Blue, if I hurt her."

Abraham waved his webbed hand in a dismissive gesture, "Have you ever hurt me? Or Father? Or one of your kittens? You play around with them all the time."

Hellboy gave a snort of laughter.

Abraham cocked his head to one side for a moment before smiling back, "Well yes, not exactly the same, but you know what I mean." With a faint shrug of his shoulder, Abraham glided away, leaving his large friend to his thoughts. Much later, when Hellboy stood to leave, waving vaguely in the direction of the tank, Abe glided up to the glass wall. "Get over yourself, my friend. She loves you."

Hellboy just nodded.

The second time, after the apologies, he still made her be on top. After preparation and lubrication, both of which he had insisted upon, she slid ever so slowly down onto him. She worked herself up and down on his flesh, her movements becoming more and more insistent as her body adjusted to his. He rested his hand on her hip, trying to slow her movements, "Easy Liz, easy. Take it slow; let me make it good for you." His breath puffed against the skin of her neck, and she shuddered. He canted his face to one side, tongue tracing along her collarbone, the blunt-filed surface of one of his horns tugging against her mouth. She moaned, arching into his fingers, now working between her thighs. "Love you, Red." she gasped, "Love you." He jerked his face up at the intensity of her voice, and the delicate skin of her lip tore against his horn but she only moaned in pleasure, shuddering through her orgasm in his arms.

When she could move again, she raised her face from his shoulder, bringing her fingers up to trace the whorls of pattern on his skin. She kissed him, slow and satisfied, and maybe, just maybe he started to understand.

The issue was not resolved in a week, or a month, but slowly they each began to understand the other a bit more. Liz did not push (too hard) and Hellboy did not balk (too much) and one day, Hellboy found himself smiling at the echoes of his fingers on her skin from the previous night. Her top slid up, just so, revealing pale bruises and he could feel her skin and the bones of her hips under his hands again. He still had to be careful, but he understood now that she had never been quite as delicate as he had been trying to make her, and he was learning to lose himself in the pleasure like she did. And Liz's sweaty, satisfied smiles were all the more precious because they brought him home.


End file.
